Showing Her True Colors: Kicking off Her True Colors Tour in June, Cyndi Lauper Once Again Proves She Has Pride

Bardin, Brantley, The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)

She hardly girl who just wants to have tim. Through-out her 30-year, Grammy-winning career, Cyndi Lauper has been there for us through thick and thin. Now she's created the True Colors tour, which aims to be an annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Month concert--think a "Cyndipalooza"--that will travel to 15 cities in June and feature five hours of music. There'll be full sets by the diva herself as well as Erasure, Debbie Harry, the Dresden Dolls, the Gossip, and the Misshapes. Special guests, including Rufus Wainwright, Rosie O'Donnell, and the Indigo Girls, are slated to pop up on the tour along the way. Presented by gay cable network Logo, the tour will give $1 made from every concert ticket directly to the Human Rights Campaign.

Well, Cyndi, the tour sounds fabulous.

It is! Judy Shepard will have bracelets that say ERASE HATE when you enter, but once you go in that's it, no more hate. We're havin' a party--it's a birthday, it's pride, so I don't know what's gonna happen! Andy [Bell] was the first to sign on--and I just recorded a song with Erasure for my new album, so we'll all pop oustage with each other. And I know Beth [Ditto] is cool from the Gossip, so I'll probably jump on with her too, and Margaret Cho's the emcee.

How'd you come to be the tour's organizer?

It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. And this way you get to got and give. That's why when they said "We'll make it the True Colors tour," I said, "Well, then we should include the Human Rights Campaign"--because the song "True Colors" means so much to the LGBT community, and you can't ignore that. I've read letters on the Internet, and when people say a song made them feel like they could get through it after they'd been disenfranchised by their friends, their family, their jobs--and they're suicidal--well ...

You shouldn't be made to feel badly about who you are. You're bern that way. For God's sake, come on already! That's why our grandparents came here, just to get a fair shake. I have every right and you have every right to be who you are.

Was the song "True Colors" specifically inspired by the gay rights movement? …

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